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Why I'm against the war
Mar. 17th, 2003 01:37 pmThe world is a different place now than in the Vietnam war era. Nuclear weapons used to be part of a scary (but effective) balance of Mutually Assured Destruction. Now our primary enemies would consider M.A.D. a victory. Resentment toward the US is on the rise in the poorest, densest parts of the world because we've benefited most from the new order while they've benefited least... AND because we've shown we're willing to use our power selfishly and will screw over nations who don't benefit us.
The path to greatness and safety in this new world order would be international cooperation. Use our buffer of prosperity to help modernize the most wretched areas of the world. Build a world community that disaffected peoples would want to be a part of rather than rebel against.
Instead what we've done is demonstrated that international law is the law of the jungle, that might makes right. We've declared that we have the right to first-use of nuclear weapons, in spite of the fact that we've signed treaties specifically repudiating first-use. We've declared that pre-emptive self-defense is a reasonable justification for attack. (Who's going to be the first country to use that justification -- perhaps accurately -- to attack us?) We've withdrawn from hugely important treaties that were part of the long, slow process of building a community of nations: Kyoto, the International Criminal Court (of course Americans would never break international law), non-proliferation, etc etc.
And guess what? The US government is not ethically fit to wield the power it has, much less the power that the world may yield to us and our military might. Example I learned this week: we lied to the Saudi Arabian government in 1993, giving them false intelligence that Iraq was massing troops to prepare an invasion of Saudi Arabia, which convinced them to allow us to use their land and airspace for the Gulf War. It later emerged that there were no such movements.
The US wants an effective monopoly on military power. (Remember why so many people hate Microsoft?) The government is perfectly willing to use this monopoly to unfairly improve its economic power. The US uses its leverage to push for political changes everywhere in the world purely on the basis of whether they benefit us, not whether they benefit the region or are actually good or right. The logic that led us to bolster, train and arm Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the first place is still active today.
I'm against this war not because war is always wrong, but because it is another big step in the direction of isolationism, arrogance, and dominance for a government that will misuse it.
Also... as long the focus of Americans is on war and on feeling like the whole world is against us, civil liberties at home will continue to erode. Lower taxes for the rich, balance the budget by cutting programs for the powerless. More civil surveillance powers. Drill the environment. We'll keep moving toward a police state and people will be too afraid to object strongly enough to stop it.
The path to greatness and safety in this new world order would be international cooperation. Use our buffer of prosperity to help modernize the most wretched areas of the world. Build a world community that disaffected peoples would want to be a part of rather than rebel against.
Instead what we've done is demonstrated that international law is the law of the jungle, that might makes right. We've declared that we have the right to first-use of nuclear weapons, in spite of the fact that we've signed treaties specifically repudiating first-use. We've declared that pre-emptive self-defense is a reasonable justification for attack. (Who's going to be the first country to use that justification -- perhaps accurately -- to attack us?) We've withdrawn from hugely important treaties that were part of the long, slow process of building a community of nations: Kyoto, the International Criminal Court (of course Americans would never break international law), non-proliferation, etc etc.
And guess what? The US government is not ethically fit to wield the power it has, much less the power that the world may yield to us and our military might. Example I learned this week: we lied to the Saudi Arabian government in 1993, giving them false intelligence that Iraq was massing troops to prepare an invasion of Saudi Arabia, which convinced them to allow us to use their land and airspace for the Gulf War. It later emerged that there were no such movements.
The US wants an effective monopoly on military power. (Remember why so many people hate Microsoft?) The government is perfectly willing to use this monopoly to unfairly improve its economic power. The US uses its leverage to push for political changes everywhere in the world purely on the basis of whether they benefit us, not whether they benefit the region or are actually good or right. The logic that led us to bolster, train and arm Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the first place is still active today.
I'm against this war not because war is always wrong, but because it is another big step in the direction of isolationism, arrogance, and dominance for a government that will misuse it.
Also... as long the focus of Americans is on war and on feeling like the whole world is against us, civil liberties at home will continue to erode. Lower taxes for the rich, balance the budget by cutting programs for the powerless. More civil surveillance powers. Drill the environment. We'll keep moving toward a police state and people will be too afraid to object strongly enough to stop it.
